This book provides a significant insight into the changes that occurred in the late Roman period and which shaped the emergence of early medieval Europe. The book provides detail regarding the ...
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This book provides a significant insight into the changes that occurred in the late Roman period and which shaped the emergence of early medieval Europe. The book provides detail regarding the changes in the character of urbanism, military organization and the rural landscape which separate the Roman Empire from Late Antiquity (first to early seventh centuries AD). Some chapters focus on the lower Danube, others provide comparative studies which range from northern Italy and Pannonia to Greece, western Asia Minor and as far east as the Euphrates. These chapters compare the results of different international research teams but also contrast approaches and methodology in order to assess the extent to which these differences might account for apparently contradictory conclusions. The volume also demonstrates the uses and pitfalls encountered in attempts to combine evidence provided by ancient historians and archaeologists — a theme which has wider implications beyond this text.Less

The Transition to Late Antiquity, on the Danube and Beyond

Published in print: 2007-12-27

This book provides a significant insight into the changes that occurred in the late Roman period and which shaped the emergence of early medieval Europe. The book provides detail regarding the changes in the character of urbanism, military organization and the rural landscape which separate the Roman Empire from Late Antiquity (first to early seventh centuries AD). Some chapters focus on the lower Danube, others provide comparative studies which range from northern Italy and Pannonia to Greece, western Asia Minor and as far east as the Euphrates. These chapters compare the results of different international research teams but also contrast approaches and methodology in order to assess the extent to which these differences might account for apparently contradictory conclusions. The volume also demonstrates the uses and pitfalls encountered in attempts to combine evidence provided by ancient historians and archaeologists — a theme which has wider implications beyond this text.

This study explores the early history of purgatory as it developed from the first to the eighth centuries. Approaching the subject from a variety of angles, the book examines how ideas of post-mortem ...
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This study explores the early history of purgatory as it developed from the first to the eighth centuries. Approaching the subject from a variety of angles, the book examines how ideas of post-mortem purgation as religious belief were forged from contested theology and eschatology, and how purgatory became the focus for such religious practices as prayer for the dead and the hope for intercession. Illuminating the various interests and influences at play in the formation of purgatorial ideas in late antiquity, this book discusses ideas about punishment and correction in the Roman world, slavery, medical purges at the shrines of saints, visionary texts, penitentials, and law codes. Confronting arguments that have viewed purgatory as a symptom of cultural shifts or educational decline, this book questions the extent to which Irish and Germanic views of society, and the sources associated with them — penitentials and legal tariffs — played a role in purgatory’s formation. In reassessing the significance of patristic discussion of purgatory, this study highlights Bede’s contribution to purgatory’s theological underpinnings allowing the future acceptance of purgatory as orthodox belief. Among those whose writings are examined are Origen, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Bede.Less

Heaven's Purge : Purgatory in Late Antiquity

Isabel Moreira

Published in print: 2010-11-17

This study explores the early history of purgatory as it developed from the first to the eighth centuries. Approaching the subject from a variety of angles, the book examines how ideas of post-mortem purgation as religious belief were forged from contested theology and eschatology, and how purgatory became the focus for such religious practices as prayer for the dead and the hope for intercession. Illuminating the various interests and influences at play in the formation of purgatorial ideas in late antiquity, this book discusses ideas about punishment and correction in the Roman world, slavery, medical purges at the shrines of saints, visionary texts, penitentials, and law codes. Confronting arguments that have viewed purgatory as a symptom of cultural shifts or educational decline, this book questions the extent to which Irish and Germanic views of society, and the sources associated with them — penitentials and legal tariffs — played a role in purgatory’s formation. In reassessing the significance of patristic discussion of purgatory, this study highlights Bede’s contribution to purgatory’s theological underpinnings allowing the future acceptance of purgatory as orthodox belief. Among those whose writings are examined are Origen, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Bede.

The last generation has seen an ‘explosion’ in the study of late antiquity. Whether people call it ‘the later Roman empire’ or ‘late antiquity’, the term now in much more common use in English. ...
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The last generation has seen an ‘explosion’ in the study of late antiquity. Whether people call it ‘the later Roman empire’ or ‘late antiquity’, the term now in much more common use in English. Handbooks are rapidly appearing to help their teachers meet this demand and they too express the current understanding of what is to be included. This chapter argues that a particular model for the study of this period has come to have a strong influence on students and scholars alike, and it asks how and why this is so, and what implications there are for the future study of the subject. Andrea Giardina has called this a particularly Anglo-centric phenomenon.Less

The ‘long’ late antiquity: a late twentieth-century model

Averil Cameron

Published in print: 2006-01-26

The last generation has seen an ‘explosion’ in the study of late antiquity. Whether people call it ‘the later Roman empire’ or ‘late antiquity’, the term now in much more common use in English. Handbooks are rapidly appearing to help their teachers meet this demand and they too express the current understanding of what is to be included. This chapter argues that a particular model for the study of this period has come to have a strong influence on students and scholars alike, and it asks how and why this is so, and what implications there are for the future study of the subject. Andrea Giardina has called this a particularly Anglo-centric phenomenon.

Martin S. Jaffee

Published in print:

2001

Published Online:

November 2003

ISBN:

9780195140675

eISBN:

9780199834334

Item type:

book

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

DOI:

10.1093/0195140672.001.0001

Subject:

Religion, Judaism

This book is a study of the relationship of oral tradition to written sources among different Jewish groups that thrived in Palestine from the later Second Temple period into Late Antiquity. Its main ...
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This book is a study of the relationship of oral tradition to written sources among different Jewish groups that thrived in Palestine from the later Second Temple period into Late Antiquity. Its main concern is to track the emerging awareness, within diverse Palestinian scribal groups, of the distinction between written books and the oral traditions upon which they were based or in light of which they were interpreted. The thesis holds that during the Second Temple period in particular, diverse Jewish scribal communities –such as the composers of Jewish pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea community, and the Pharisees – certainly employed oral traditions in their literary and interpretive work. But they did not appeal to oral tradition as an authoritative source of knowledge. This was reserved for written books regarded as prophetic transmissions from antiquity. The emergence of a coherent ideology of oral tradition as a kind of revelation comparable to that of Scripture is associated with the consolidation of third century rabbinic Judaism. The book argues that the rabbinic ideology of Oral Torah – “Torah in the Mouth” – is, in great measure, a legitimation of the institution of rabbinic discipleship, which depended upon the primacy of face‐to‐face relationships, unmediated by the written word.Less

Martin S. Jaffee

Published in print: 2001-05-17

This book is a study of the relationship of oral tradition to written sources among different Jewish groups that thrived in Palestine from the later Second Temple period into Late Antiquity. Its main concern is to track the emerging awareness, within diverse Palestinian scribal groups, of the distinction between written books and the oral traditions upon which they were based or in light of which they were interpreted. The thesis holds that during the Second Temple period in particular, diverse Jewish scribal communities –such as the composers of Jewish pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea community, and the Pharisees – certainly employed oral traditions in their literary and interpretive work. But they did not appeal to oral tradition as an authoritative source of knowledge. This was reserved for written books regarded as prophetic transmissions from antiquity. The emergence of a coherent ideology of oral tradition as a kind of revelation comparable to that of Scripture is associated with the consolidation of third century rabbinic Judaism. The book argues that the rabbinic ideology of Oral Torah – “Torah in the Mouth” – is, in great measure, a legitimation of the institution of rabbinic discipleship, which depended upon the primacy of face‐to‐face relationships, unmediated by the written word.

This chapter examines the role that late antique scholarship has occasionally assigned to Islam, with particular emphasis on the work of Alois Riegl, Josef Strzygowski, Henri Pirenne, and Peter ...
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This chapter examines the role that late antique scholarship has occasionally assigned to Islam, with particular emphasis on the work of Alois Riegl, Josef Strzygowski, Henri Pirenne, and Peter Brown. It begins with an overview of the roots of late antique studies on Islam, citing the impetus given by theological and philosophical concerns to interest in late Antiquity up to and including the nineteenth century. It also considers the catalytic role of art, architectural history, and archaeology in the “slow transformations” of the late antique world. It shows that questions about Islam were already present at the very birth of modern late antique studies.Less

Time : Beyond Late Antiquity

Garth Fowden

Published in print: 2013-12-08

This chapter examines the role that late antique scholarship has occasionally assigned to Islam, with particular emphasis on the work of Alois Riegl, Josef Strzygowski, Henri Pirenne, and Peter Brown. It begins with an overview of the roots of late antique studies on Islam, citing the impetus given by theological and philosophical concerns to interest in late Antiquity up to and including the nineteenth century. It also considers the catalytic role of art, architectural history, and archaeology in the “slow transformations” of the late antique world. It shows that questions about Islam were already present at the very birth of modern late antique studies.

Survey evidence gathered in the city of Sagalassos (Pisidia, southwestern Turkey), its suburbs, and its countryside has led to new insights into developments in the region in Late Antiquity. Coupled ...
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Survey evidence gathered in the city of Sagalassos (Pisidia, southwestern Turkey), its suburbs, and its countryside has led to new insights into developments in the region in Late Antiquity. Coupled with the results from archaeological excavations, soundings and interdisciplinary research, a reconstruction can be made of what happened during the last centuries of the city's existence. Framing the observed changes in a larger chronological perspective, another view emerges on the fate of the city and its countryside in Late Antiquity. Terms such as ‘decline’, ‘fall’ and ‘transformation’ relate to cities and do not adequately describe contemporary evolution in the countryside. An urgent call for rural surveys is advocated to avoid the perpetuation of the intellectual trap created by this urban-centred approach.Less

Another View on Late Antiquity: Sagalassos (SW Anatolia), its Suburbium and its Countryside in Late Antiquity

H. VANHAVERBEKEF. MARTENSM. WAELKENS

Published in print: 2007-12-27

Survey evidence gathered in the city of Sagalassos (Pisidia, southwestern Turkey), its suburbs, and its countryside has led to new insights into developments in the region in Late Antiquity. Coupled with the results from archaeological excavations, soundings and interdisciplinary research, a reconstruction can be made of what happened during the last centuries of the city's existence. Framing the observed changes in a larger chronological perspective, another view emerges on the fate of the city and its countryside in Late Antiquity. Terms such as ‘decline’, ‘fall’ and ‘transformation’ relate to cities and do not adequately describe contemporary evolution in the countryside. An urgent call for rural surveys is advocated to avoid the perpetuation of the intellectual trap created by this urban-centred approach.

In recent years, there has been a revival of interest in Late Antiquity and especially in observing — and trying to account for — the changes and evolutions which separate the Roman world from the ...
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In recent years, there has been a revival of interest in Late Antiquity and especially in observing — and trying to account for — the changes and evolutions which separate the Roman world from the early medieval successor states in the West, and the Byzantine Empire in the East. Most historians, once mistrustful of archaeology's potential role, now accept that this relatively new discipline can contribute substantially to the study of the ancient past. However, archaeology, like history, is constrained by its own limitations: excavation can provide no answers to questions not rooted in the data it extracts from the ground. This chapter, and the chapters which follow, cover a wide spectrum of issues, going beyond the problem of continuity or collapse on the lower Danube. Modern research programmes operating within the region and further afield, both in the northern Balkans and in Asia Minor, are analyzed. Cities and urbanism in the Roman Empire are discussed.Less

The Transition to Late Antiquity

A. G. POULTER

Published in print: 2007-12-27

In recent years, there has been a revival of interest in Late Antiquity and especially in observing — and trying to account for — the changes and evolutions which separate the Roman world from the early medieval successor states in the West, and the Byzantine Empire in the East. Most historians, once mistrustful of archaeology's potential role, now accept that this relatively new discipline can contribute substantially to the study of the ancient past. However, archaeology, like history, is constrained by its own limitations: excavation can provide no answers to questions not rooted in the data it extracts from the ground. This chapter, and the chapters which follow, cover a wide spectrum of issues, going beyond the problem of continuity or collapse on the lower Danube. Modern research programmes operating within the region and further afield, both in the northern Balkans and in Asia Minor, are analyzed. Cities and urbanism in the Roman Empire are discussed.

The fall of the Roman Empire remains a mystery. Archaeological and historical concerns today are less metaphysical and more intellectually challenging at the level of reconstructing the processes at ...
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The fall of the Roman Empire remains a mystery. Archaeological and historical concerns today are less metaphysical and more intellectually challenging at the level of reconstructing the processes at work before, during and long after the official sack of Rome, and are as much focused on the succeeding transition to the medieval world as on the build-up to imperial decay and collapse. This chapter presents a grassroots case-study examination of the transformation of society in town and country in central Greece, founded on a regional survey project that has been running for 25 years. From the arrival of Roman control, through Late Antiquity and into the resurgence of strong state control emanating out of Byzantium in the eighth-nineth centuries AD, this chapter tries to set the patterns, provisional interpretations and questions which have arisen from the sequence in this region into wider debates around the Mediterranean concerning the contribution of regional archaeological surveys to the late antique-early medieval transition.Less

The Contribution of Regional Survey to the Late Antiquity Debate: Greece in its Mediterranean Context

J. BINTLIFF

Published in print: 2007-12-27

The fall of the Roman Empire remains a mystery. Archaeological and historical concerns today are less metaphysical and more intellectually challenging at the level of reconstructing the processes at work before, during and long after the official sack of Rome, and are as much focused on the succeeding transition to the medieval world as on the build-up to imperial decay and collapse. This chapter presents a grassroots case-study examination of the transformation of society in town and country in central Greece, founded on a regional survey project that has been running for 25 years. From the arrival of Roman control, through Late Antiquity and into the resurgence of strong state control emanating out of Byzantium in the eighth-nineth centuries AD, this chapter tries to set the patterns, provisional interpretations and questions which have arisen from the sequence in this region into wider debates around the Mediterranean concerning the contribution of regional archaeological surveys to the late antique-early medieval transition.

This chapter attempts to exemplify the contention first presented in the introduction that significant aspects of the history of the Jews of late antiquity will have to be rewritten once the latest ...
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This chapter attempts to exemplify the contention first presented in the introduction that significant aspects of the history of the Jews of late antiquity will have to be rewritten once the latest developments in Talmud text criticism are taken into account. Although these developments greatly complicate the historian's task, they add depth and subtlety to the historian's arguments and ensure that conclusions rest on a firmer literary foundation. Among the more significant findings will be the discovery that there is less reason than earlier scholars thought to view early Babylonian rabbis as important players in the Jewish community's interactions with the Persian government. The chapter strengthens and adds subtlety to one of the central arguments of this book: that the Babylonian Talmud tends to portray Babylonian rabbis as inward-looking, with the study house to a significant extent the sum total of their experience, even in situations where it had been the consensus of earlier scholarship that they served as the pre-eminent leaders of the Jewish community.Less

Persian Persecutions of the Jews

Richard Kalmin

Published in print: 2006-10-01

This chapter attempts to exemplify the contention first presented in the introduction that significant aspects of the history of the Jews of late antiquity will have to be rewritten once the latest developments in Talmud text criticism are taken into account. Although these developments greatly complicate the historian's task, they add depth and subtlety to the historian's arguments and ensure that conclusions rest on a firmer literary foundation. Among the more significant findings will be the discovery that there is less reason than earlier scholars thought to view early Babylonian rabbis as important players in the Jewish community's interactions with the Persian government. The chapter strengthens and adds subtlety to one of the central arguments of this book: that the Babylonian Talmud tends to portray Babylonian rabbis as inward-looking, with the study house to a significant extent the sum total of their experience, even in situations where it had been the consensus of earlier scholarship that they served as the pre-eminent leaders of the Jewish community.

This chapter first sets out the aim of this book, which is to provide a guide on Jewish literature composed in the first millennium ce in Hebrew or Aramaic, either in Palestine under Roman rule or in ...
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This chapter first sets out the aim of this book, which is to provide a guide on Jewish literature composed in the first millennium ce in Hebrew or Aramaic, either in Palestine under Roman rule or in Babylonia under the rule of the Sassanid kings of Persia. It offers essential information on the printed editions of each; their contents and likely date of redaction; translations into European languages; modern commentaries, whether in a European language or Hebrew; electronic texts, if available; and the manuscripts in which each is found. The discussions then turn to how to approach the Jewish literature of Late Antiquity and the character of Late Antique Jewish literature.Less

Historical Introduction

Eyal Ben-EliyahuYehudah CohnFergus Millar

Published in print: 2013-01-10

This chapter first sets out the aim of this book, which is to provide a guide on Jewish literature composed in the first millennium ce in Hebrew or Aramaic, either in Palestine under Roman rule or in Babylonia under the rule of the Sassanid kings of Persia. It offers essential information on the printed editions of each; their contents and likely date of redaction; translations into European languages; modern commentaries, whether in a European language or Hebrew; electronic texts, if available; and the manuscripts in which each is found. The discussions then turn to how to approach the Jewish literature of Late Antiquity and the character of Late Antique Jewish literature.

This chapter examines the methodologies, new approaches, and challenges in the use of rabbinic literature to study the history of Judaism in late antiquity. It provides some examples that demonstrate ...
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This chapter examines the methodologies, new approaches, and challenges in the use of rabbinic literature to study the history of Judaism in late antiquity. It provides some examples that demonstrate some of the issues concerning the applicability of rabbinic literature to the study of Judaism in late-Roman Palestine. It concludes that rabbinic literature can serve as a historical source, especially when read indirectly and through the lens of well-defined theoretical frameworks, and when perceived as a rabbinic cultural product that reflects delicate, sophisticated and hardly recoverable relationships between text and reality.Less

Rabbinic Literature and the History of Judaism in Late Antiquity: Challenges, Methodologies and New Approaches

MOSHE LAVEE

Published in print: 2011-01-13

This chapter examines the methodologies, new approaches, and challenges in the use of rabbinic literature to study the history of Judaism in late antiquity. It provides some examples that demonstrate some of the issues concerning the applicability of rabbinic literature to the study of Judaism in late-Roman Palestine. It concludes that rabbinic literature can serve as a historical source, especially when read indirectly and through the lens of well-defined theoretical frameworks, and when perceived as a rabbinic cultural product that reflects delicate, sophisticated and hardly recoverable relationships between text and reality.

After excavations carried out on the site of Nicopolis ad Istrum in Bulgaria, the results were used to reconstruct the city's physical and economic character from its foundation under Trajan down to ...
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After excavations carried out on the site of Nicopolis ad Istrum in Bulgaria, the results were used to reconstruct the city's physical and economic character from its foundation under Trajan down to the end of the sixth century. The incentive for the subsequent programme, ‘The Transition to Late Antiquity’, was the discovery that the city was replaced by a very different Nicopolis, both in layout and economy, during the fifth century. A site-specific survey method was developed to explore the countryside. The survey discovered that the Roman villa economy collapsed late in the fourth century. The excavations on the site of the late Roman fort at Dichin provided an unexpected but invaluable insight into the regional economy and military situation on the lower Danube in the fifth and sixth centuries. The results of both these two research projects are summarized and an explanation proposed as to how and why there was such a radical break between the Roman Empire and its early Byzantine successor on the lower Danube.Less

The Transition to Late Antiquity on the Lower Danube: the City, a Fort and the Countryside

A. G. POULTER

Published in print: 2007-12-27

After excavations carried out on the site of Nicopolis ad Istrum in Bulgaria, the results were used to reconstruct the city's physical and economic character from its foundation under Trajan down to the end of the sixth century. The incentive for the subsequent programme, ‘The Transition to Late Antiquity’, was the discovery that the city was replaced by a very different Nicopolis, both in layout and economy, during the fifth century. A site-specific survey method was developed to explore the countryside. The survey discovered that the Roman villa economy collapsed late in the fourth century. The excavations on the site of the late Roman fort at Dichin provided an unexpected but invaluable insight into the regional economy and military situation on the lower Danube in the fifth and sixth centuries. The results of both these two research projects are summarized and an explanation proposed as to how and why there was such a radical break between the Roman Empire and its early Byzantine successor on the lower Danube.

The story of Nicopolis ad Istrum and its citizens exemplifies much that is common to the urban history of the whole Roman Empire. This chapter reviews the history of Nicopolis and its transition into ...
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The story of Nicopolis ad Istrum and its citizens exemplifies much that is common to the urban history of the whole Roman Empire. This chapter reviews the history of Nicopolis and its transition into the small fortified site of the fifth to seventh centuries and compares it with the evidence from the Near East and Asia Minor. It argues that Nicopolis may not have experienced a cataclysm as has been suggested, and that, as in the fifth and sixth century west, where landowning elites showed a striking ability to adapt and survive, there was an important element of continuity on the lower Danube, which in turn may account for the distinctive ‘Roman’ element in the early medieval Bulgar state. It also suggests that the term ‘transition to Late Antiquity’ should be applied to what happened at Nicopolis in the third century: what happened there in the fifth was the transition to the middle ages. This chapter also describes late antique urbanism in the Balkans by focusing on the Justiniana Prima site.Less

Nicopolis ad Istrum: Backward and Balkan?

M. WHITTOW

Published in print: 2007-12-27

The story of Nicopolis ad Istrum and its citizens exemplifies much that is common to the urban history of the whole Roman Empire. This chapter reviews the history of Nicopolis and its transition into the small fortified site of the fifth to seventh centuries and compares it with the evidence from the Near East and Asia Minor. It argues that Nicopolis may not have experienced a cataclysm as has been suggested, and that, as in the fifth and sixth century west, where landowning elites showed a striking ability to adapt and survive, there was an important element of continuity on the lower Danube, which in turn may account for the distinctive ‘Roman’ element in the early medieval Bulgar state. It also suggests that the term ‘transition to Late Antiquity’ should be applied to what happened at Nicopolis in the third century: what happened there in the fifth was the transition to the middle ages. This chapter also describes late antique urbanism in the Balkans by focusing on the Justiniana Prima site.

This chapter proposes the First Millennium as an alternative or parallel periodization, arguing that it has the basic advantage of embracing the “long” late Antiquity advocated by Peter Brown: the ...
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This chapter proposes the First Millennium as an alternative or parallel periodization, arguing that it has the basic advantage of embracing the “long” late Antiquity advocated by Peter Brown: the formation of Christianity and the birth of Islam. Instead of viewing the centuries after 250 as primarily an Age of Empires, the chapter foregrounds pre-600 the two major monotheistic traditions, rabbinic Judaism and Christianity, as they move toward a mature form still readily recognizable today. It then adds Islam, gradually emergent from soon after 600. All three of these major, seminal developments are unique to their period, without parallel in any other. Aside from these three major monotheisms, the chapter shows that Greek philosophy, Roman law, Mazdaism, and Manicheism attained intellectual and institutional maturation in the First Millennium.Less

A New Periodization : The First Millennium

Garth Fowden

Published in print: 2013-12-08

This chapter proposes the First Millennium as an alternative or parallel periodization, arguing that it has the basic advantage of embracing the “long” late Antiquity advocated by Peter Brown: the formation of Christianity and the birth of Islam. Instead of viewing the centuries after 250 as primarily an Age of Empires, the chapter foregrounds pre-600 the two major monotheistic traditions, rabbinic Judaism and Christianity, as they move toward a mature form still readily recognizable today. It then adds Islam, gradually emergent from soon after 600. All three of these major, seminal developments are unique to their period, without parallel in any other. Aside from these three major monotheisms, the chapter shows that Greek philosophy, Roman law, Mazdaism, and Manicheism attained intellectual and institutional maturation in the First Millennium.

This chapter focuses on the contrasting imperial visions regarding Jerusalem. Topics discussed include the appropriation of Jerusalem in late antiquity; Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem's depiction of ...
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This chapter focuses on the contrasting imperial visions regarding Jerusalem. Topics discussed include the appropriation of Jerusalem in late antiquity; Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem's depiction of Jerusalem as a genealogy of the cross and not of Constantine; emperor Julian's vision to alter the Jerusalemite landscape by reviving its Jewish roots, euergetism of aristocratic and imperial women in Jerusalem, emperor Justinian's Jerusalem, and literature that emerged in the wake of political changes at the dawn of the 7th century.Less

Jerusalem: The Contrasting Eyes of Beholders

Hagith Sivan

Published in print: 2008-02-14

This chapter focuses on the contrasting imperial visions regarding Jerusalem. Topics discussed include the appropriation of Jerusalem in late antiquity; Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem's depiction of Jerusalem as a genealogy of the cross and not of Constantine; emperor Julian's vision to alter the Jerusalemite landscape by reviving its Jewish roots, euergetism of aristocratic and imperial women in Jerusalem, emperor Justinian's Jerusalem, and literature that emerged in the wake of political changes at the dawn of the 7th century.

The archaeological excavations carried out on late Roman and early Byzantine sites in the Balkans has revolutionized our knowledge of this part of the world in Late Antiquity. How these sites are ...
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The archaeological excavations carried out on late Roman and early Byzantine sites in the Balkans has revolutionized our knowledge of this part of the world in Late Antiquity. How these sites are dated is obviously important as, without accurate and reliable dating, it is difficult to understand how they fit into the wider historical narrative. This chapter takes the coins excavated at Dichin as its starting point and, by careful analysis, proposes a general dating scheme for the two phases of occupation at the settlement. The lack of coins struck during the years 474–518 is a notable feature of the assemblage from Dichin, a pattern that is repeated at most sites in the region where coins of the emperor Zeno are particularly rare. By looking at both site finds and hoards from the region, however, these explanations need to be revised as they are based on a numismatic mirage rather than archaeological fact.Less

Coin Circulation in the Balkans in Late Antiquity

P. GUEST

Published in print: 2007-12-27

The archaeological excavations carried out on late Roman and early Byzantine sites in the Balkans has revolutionized our knowledge of this part of the world in Late Antiquity. How these sites are dated is obviously important as, without accurate and reliable dating, it is difficult to understand how they fit into the wider historical narrative. This chapter takes the coins excavated at Dichin as its starting point and, by careful analysis, proposes a general dating scheme for the two phases of occupation at the settlement. The lack of coins struck during the years 474–518 is a notable feature of the assemblage from Dichin, a pattern that is repeated at most sites in the region where coins of the emperor Zeno are particularly rare. By looking at both site finds and hoards from the region, however, these explanations need to be revised as they are based on a numismatic mirage rather than archaeological fact.

The seven years of excavation on Dichin (Bulgaria) have made a significant contribution to our understanding of the fifth century AD, a period that is still regarded as a ‘dark age’. The fort of ...
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The seven years of excavation on Dichin (Bulgaria) have made a significant contribution to our understanding of the fifth century AD, a period that is still regarded as a ‘dark age’. The fort of Iatrus was situated in the province of Moesia Secunda, where Dichin is also located. Founded at the beginning of the fourth century, the fort was several times destroyed and then rebuilt over the 300 years of its existence until it was finally abandoned c.AD 600. What is not clear is whether Iatrus' role as a part of the Roman frontier (limes) on the lower Danube belongs to the final period in the history of the Roman Empire or whether it belongs to the early development of the Byzantine State. This chapter examines whether the archaeological discoveries at Iatrus, combined with the fragmentary literary sources for the fort, suggest a gradual transition or a radical break between Late Antiquity and the early Byzantine period.Less

The Fort of Iatrus in Moesia Secunda: Observations on the Late Roman Defensive System on the Lower Danube (Fourth–Sixth Centuries ad)

GERDA VON BÜLOW

Published in print: 2007-12-27

The seven years of excavation on Dichin (Bulgaria) have made a significant contribution to our understanding of the fifth century AD, a period that is still regarded as a ‘dark age’. The fort of Iatrus was situated in the province of Moesia Secunda, where Dichin is also located. Founded at the beginning of the fourth century, the fort was several times destroyed and then rebuilt over the 300 years of its existence until it was finally abandoned c.AD 600. What is not clear is whether Iatrus' role as a part of the Roman frontier (limes) on the lower Danube belongs to the final period in the history of the Roman Empire or whether it belongs to the early development of the Byzantine State. This chapter examines whether the archaeological discoveries at Iatrus, combined with the fragmentary literary sources for the fort, suggest a gradual transition or a radical break between Late Antiquity and the early Byzantine period.

This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the period covered by this book — starting with Constantine in the early 4th century and ending with Abd al-Malik in the late 7th century. ...
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This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the period covered by this book — starting with Constantine in the early 4th century and ending with Abd al-Malik in the late 7th century. The first acknowledges new types of conflict which Constantine's conversion put in motion; the second marked the entry of Islam into the conflictual conversation in which triumphant religions engaged with biblical territories. It then discusses the sources relating to Palestine in late antiquity and the conflicts resulting from the diverse sources which the historian must use.Less

Introduction

Hagith Sivan

Published in print: 2008-02-14

This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the period covered by this book — starting with Constantine in the early 4th century and ending with Abd al-Malik in the late 7th century. The first acknowledges new types of conflict which Constantine's conversion put in motion; the second marked the entry of Islam into the conflictual conversation in which triumphant religions engaged with biblical territories. It then discusses the sources relating to Palestine in late antiquity and the conflicts resulting from the diverse sources which the historian must use.

As Ra‘anan Boustan observes, sacrificial cult remained the dominant paradigm for religious piety among Jews and Christians, despite the absence of sacrificial practices in both contexts. ...
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As Ra‘anan Boustan observes, sacrificial cult remained the dominant paradigm for religious piety among Jews and Christians, despite the absence of sacrificial practices in both contexts. Reinvigorated in discourses of martyrdom, blood remained a charged site of discursive contact, ritual contestation and exegetical competition. Comparing two contemporaneous narratives from late antiquity, rabbinic accounts of the death of Zechariah the prophet and the Story of the Ten Martyrs, Boustan observes that sublimated violence, while relevant to both texts, cannot explain the attitudes adopted to sacrificial practice. In retellings of the story of Zechariah, human and animal victims fail to provide the redemption Israel needs. By contrast, in the Story of the Ten Martyrs, heroic rabbis are represented as sacrificial victims who willingly lay down their lives to atone for Israel’s sin. Quite different in their approach, these texts nevertheless participate in a common project of wresting control over the meaning and function of righteous human blood in the context of an increasingly hegemonic Roman-Christian culture.Less

Confounding Blood : Jewish Narratives of Sacrifice and Violence in Late Antiquity

Boustan Ra‘anan S.

Published in print: 2011-10-14

As Ra‘anan Boustan observes, sacrificial cult remained the dominant paradigm for religious piety among Jews and Christians, despite the absence of sacrificial practices in both contexts. Reinvigorated in discourses of martyrdom, blood remained a charged site of discursive contact, ritual contestation and exegetical competition. Comparing two contemporaneous narratives from late antiquity, rabbinic accounts of the death of Zechariah the prophet and the Story of the Ten Martyrs, Boustan observes that sublimated violence, while relevant to both texts, cannot explain the attitudes adopted to sacrificial practice. In retellings of the story of Zechariah, human and animal victims fail to provide the redemption Israel needs. By contrast, in the Story of the Ten Martyrs, heroic rabbis are represented as sacrificial victims who willingly lay down their lives to atone for Israel’s sin. Quite different in their approach, these texts nevertheless participate in a common project of wresting control over the meaning and function of righteous human blood in the context of an increasingly hegemonic Roman-Christian culture.

Greek and Latin inscriptions are now fully embraced within the study of Late Antiquity and the Byzantine Era. At Constantinople, inscriptions of the Byzantine era were displayed along with ancient ...
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Greek and Latin inscriptions are now fully embraced within the study of Late Antiquity and the Byzantine Era. At Constantinople, inscriptions of the Byzantine era were displayed along with ancient texts imported from elsewhere in the Empire, symbolising the welding of Hellenism and Romanitas. While the number and variety of texts do not match those of earlier eras, they can furnish evidence for several aspects of society. Personal names recorded on inscriptions reveal the impact of the Latin West and of Christianity on the Greek East, in the choice of names and the styles of nomenclature. The survival of names of local origin, from Thrace, Anatolia and Syria, areas where Greek was later imposed on an earlier substrate not always written, reveals the vigour of local traditions.Less

Inscriptions of Early Byzantium and the Continuity of Ancient Onomastics

Denis Feissel

Published in print: 2012-06-14

Greek and Latin inscriptions are now fully embraced within the study of Late Antiquity and the Byzantine Era. At Constantinople, inscriptions of the Byzantine era were displayed along with ancient texts imported from elsewhere in the Empire, symbolising the welding of Hellenism and Romanitas. While the number and variety of texts do not match those of earlier eras, they can furnish evidence for several aspects of society. Personal names recorded on inscriptions reveal the impact of the Latin West and of Christianity on the Greek East, in the choice of names and the styles of nomenclature. The survival of names of local origin, from Thrace, Anatolia and Syria, areas where Greek was later imposed on an earlier substrate not always written, reveals the vigour of local traditions.